A law firm fighting a civil investigative demand from The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau called the agency a “Frankenstein’s monster” following the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Seila Law case, arguing that a lawsuit filed by the agency should not be allowed to continue.
A copy of the response to order to show cause in the case of CFPB v. Law Office of Crystal Moroney can be accessed by clicking here.
The CFPB began its investigation into the law firm more than three years ago, seeking information that might be relevant to its investigation into the law firm’s collection practices. The law firm, according to the CFPB, failed to fully comply with the CID, which led the agency to seek a federal judge to compel compliance.
The CFPB opted to abandon that case and avoid the legal fight over its constitutionality at the time. But hours after it dropped the case, the CFPB filed a new CID with the law firm, which it said was “nearly identical” to the original request.
But following the Supreme Court’s decision in Seila Law v. CFPB that the leadership structure of the Bureau is unconstitutional, the law firm is seeking to convince the judge that the CFPB’s suit should not be allowed to proceed.
“It is time to bring the Bureau’s three-year rampage against Ms. Moroney’s Law Firm — and its decade-long detour into constitutional governance — to an end,” the defendant wrote in its response. “Seila Law has not rescued CFPB from its unconstitutional ways. Rather, it has confirmed and deepened the constitutional problems with the Bureau’s structure — problems that cannot be papered over with ratification by an agent or disregarded while Ms. Moroney’s Law Firm suffers irreparable harm at the agency’s hands.”
Arguing that the Supreme Court’s ruling has turned the CFPB into an “Executive Branch Frankenstein’s monster,” because it is still being run by a single director instead of a multi-member commission, the defendant said that even a ratification that was filed by CFPB Director Kathleen Kraninger is not enough to allow the suit to continue.
